Historical Figure
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
b. 1978
President of Ukraine since 2019
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"Address to the United States Congress" — December 21, 2022
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Biography
Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy is a Ukrainian politician and former entertainer who, since 2019, has served as the sixth president of Ukraine. He took office five years after the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War with Russia's annexation of Crimea and invasion of the Donbas, and has continued to serve during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has been ongoing since February 2022.
Timeline
The story of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told in moments.
Co-founds Kvartal 95, a comedy production company. Their sketches mock Ukrainian politicians, oligarchs, and corruption. Zelenskyy becomes the most recognizable comedian in Ukraine. He performs in Russian.
Stars in Servant of the People, a TV series where he plays a high school history teacher who accidentally becomes president of Ukraine after a rant about corruption goes viral. The show runs for three seasons. It's fiction. Then it isn't.
Elected president of Ukraine with 73% of the vote in a runoff against incumbent Petro Poroshenko. He runs on an anti-corruption platform using social media instead of traditional campaigning. He's 41 with no political experience.
Russia invades Ukraine across multiple fronts. Russian paratroopers land at Hostomel airport outside Kyiv. The U.S. reportedly offers to evacuate him. His response: "I need ammunition, not a ride." He stays in Kyiv and posts nightly video addresses from the presidential compound.
Visits Washington, D.C., and addresses a joint session of Congress. He presents a battle flag signed by Ukrainian soldiers from Bakhmut. It's his first trip outside Ukraine since the invasion began ten months earlier. He flies home the same day.
In Their Own Words (20)
I want to see my kids walk the streets without hiding.
Interview BBC (March 26, 2025), 2025
It is very important that the world sees: a fair and honest end to Russian aggression will benefit everyone in the world. Everyone! Liberating Ukrainian land from the occupiers means restoring full respect for international law and the UN Charter. Eliminating all threats created by Russia to Ukrainian and global security means returning peace to international relations and stability to global life.
"Fair and honest end to Russian aggression will benefit everyone in the world" (4 August 2023), 2023
Establishing the full truth about the crimes of the occupiers on our independent Ukrainian land is a fundamental prerequisite for bringing Russia to full accountability for its aggression and terror. We must do everything for justice, and I am grateful to those of you who are bringing this day closer, this time — the time of justice.
"President at the events on the occasion of the Day of National Police" (4 July 2023), 2023
The scariest thing is that part of the world got used to the war in Ukraine. Exhaustion with the war rolls along like a wave. You see it in the United States, in Europe. And we see that as soon as they start to get a little tired, it becomes like a show to them: ‘I can’t watch this rerun for the 10th time.
Quoted by Simon Shuster, in ‘Nobody Believes in Our Victory Like I Do.’ Inside Volodymyr Zelensky’s Struggle to Keep Ukraine in the Fight, Time, (30 October 2023), 2023
The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.
February 25, When speaking to an U.S. intelligence official about being offered an evacuation from Kyiv during] the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, according a reporter from Association Press"AP Live updates: Zelenskyy declines US offer to evacuate Kyiv"; also quoted in "Zelensky refuses US offer to evacuate, saying 'I need ammunition, not a ride'", by Sharon Braithwaite, CNN (26 February 2022), 2022
Artifacts (6)
losing her this way was a shock so deep that time failed to remedy
ng birth to his third brother, Shawki, and that his family had kept the news from him. Nasser later stated that "losing her this way was a shock so deep that time failed to remedy". He adored his...
I am ashamed that our army has not reacted against this attack
Nahas as Prime Minister. Nasser saw the incident as a blatant violation of Egyptian sovereignty and wrote, "I am ashamed that our army has not reacted against this attack", and wished for "calamity"...
Glory to Ukraine: Speeches of President Zelenskyy: Patriotic Oratory: Inspiring Words from Ukraine's Leader
In "Glory to Ukraine: Speeches of President Zelenskyy," the reader is offered an incisive collection of key speeches that not only encapsulate the resilience and spirit of the Ukrainian people in the...
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